Equine Covid – we’re here to help

14th April, 2020

We’re here to help you 24/7 if you have a problem with your horse or pony during the Covid 19 lockdown:

Please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01635254544, Chris on his mobile 07879474948 or by email chris@coachhousevets.com. We may well be able to help over the phone or by video call and, if not, we can attend to take care of the problem.

What about routine healthcare such as vaccinations and dentistry?

With some strict precautions in place we will carry out routine vaccinations to keep your horse or pony in date. If not performing routine dentistry before the end of May is likely to cause your horse or pony a problem then we can help with that too.

What precautions do we need to take?

We need to know when you make the appointment if you or any of your household are self-isolating, showing any respiratory symptoms or have tested positive for Covid 19 please.

When we attend only one person should be with the horse or pony.

Strict social distancing needs to be observed at all times (a few emergencies may make this difficult). 2 meters is a minimum and we’ll make efforts to stay 10 meters apart if we can.

As much communication as possible will be done on the phone before and after the appointment to minimise face to face communication.

By taking care avoiding contact and with disinfection we can keep you and our team safe. Thank you for your help with this.

LAMINITIS

At a time when horses and ponies aren’t doing much work, the grass is growing and the sun is shining laminitis becomes a real risk. Here are a few things you can do:

Try using a muzzle to reduce your horse’s or pony’s intake of spring grass.

Bring them in for some of the time to further reduce intake. You can fill them up with hay when they’re in to reduce the amount of grass they eat when out.

Take special care with horses and ponies that are above condition score 3, have had laminitis before or are suffering from Cushings Disease.

Don’t let your horse or pony’s feet get too long. Farriers are doing limited work during this lockdown but they should help prevent overlong feet causing a welfare problem.

Keep an eye out for any signs of stiffness or foot discomfort shown by being uncomfortable cornering or shifting from one foot to another (heat in the foot is a very unreliable sign of laminitis).

IF YOU SEE ANY SIGNS YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT BRING THE HORSE OR PONY IN ONTO A DEEP BED AND CALL US. LAMINITIS IS AN EMERGENCY.

Fun during the lockdown

Please do post piccies of you enjoying the sunshine with your horse or pony. We love to hear about them. Do you think that you and your horse or pony share some characteristics? Do you even look similar?! Why not draw or paint us a picture of your horse or pony? If we have enough entries we’ll give the winner a prize!